Positive-action automatic rate regulation for timepieces



March 20, 1962 J. RABINQW 3,

POSITIVE-ACTION AUTOMATIC RATE REGULATIQN FOR TIMEPIECES Filed June 1, 1961 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 FIG. 1.

INVENTOR Jacob Rabinow BY W V ATTORNEY March r1962 RABINIOW 3,025,664

POSITIVE-ACTION AUTOMATIC RATE REGULATION FOR TIMEPIECES Filed June 1, 1961 3 SheetsSheet ,2

In FIG. 2.

INVENIOR Jacob Rabinow ATTORNEY Mardl 196.2 I J. RABINOIWQ 3,025,664

POSITIVE-ACTION AUTOMATIC RATE REGULATION FOR TIMEPIECES Filed June 1, 1961 I 3 Sheets-Sheet I5 INVENTOR Jacob Robinow ATTORNEY Unite States This invention relates to an automatic rate regulator for timepieces such as clocks, watches, etc., of the type wherein an automatic regulation of the running rate is produced when the hands are set to the correct time.

Automatic rate regulators of the above type are generally known, wherein whenever the timepiece is running either fast or slow, and the hands are set to the correct time, a rate regulation is made automatically in the proper direction; that is, if the hands are set back because the timepiece has been running fast, then the running rate should be reduced when the hands are set back to the correct time, and vice versa. In automatic rate regula' tors of this type, it is highly desirable to provide a socalled latch-out mechanism, that is, a mechanism whereby if the hands are set by more than a given small amount, no correction at all will be accomplished. The object of this is to provide for the circumstance, which often occurs, when the hands are advanced or set back an hour upon changing of time zones, or are set a large amount due to the timepiece having run down, etc. In these cases, the change in setting obviously does not indicate that the timepiece has been running either fast or slow, and therefore no correction should be made. Prior art mechanisms have been devised for this purpose, but are generally either unsatisfactory in their action, re quire very close manufacturing tolerances, or else are complex or expensive to fabricate.

It is a major object of the present invention to obviate the above disadvantages in an automatic latch-out type regulator. This is accomplished, according to the invention, by providing a regulator device actuated by an eccentric or crank mechanism which has a maximum throw, which actuates the regulating mechanism to a maximum degree, and upon further rotation of the hands, returns the regulating mechanism to its original position, and latches at this point so that no regulation at all is made if the hands are turned beyond a predetermined amount, as will be explained in detail below.

The specific nature of my invention, as well as other objects and advantages thereof, will clearly appear from a description of a preferred embodiment, as shown in the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a watch embodying the invention as seen from the front or face thereof, the convention-al watch mechanism being deleted in the interest of clearness;

FIG. 2 is a similar view of the invention as seen from the back of the watch;

FIGS. 3 and 4 are views respectively similar to FIGS. 1 and 2, but shown in the hand-setting position, just after a time correction has been made.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken on line 5-5 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 6 is a sectional view taken on line 66 of FIG. 2; and

FIG. 7 is a sectional view taken on line 7--7 of FIG. 6.

Referring to FIG. 2, the timepiece to be regulated, shown in this instance as a watch, is provided with the customary stem 2, which is shown in the normal running position, that is, pressed in toward the body of the watch. In this condition, as is conventional, the watch may be wound by rotating the stem 2 backwards and forwards between the thumb and the finger. Since the mechanism for doing this is entirely conventional, and has no relation atent ice to the present invention, it is not shown. The shaft 3, to which the stem 2 is attached, is provided with detent means 4 which holds the shaft in either the normal running position shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, or in the setting position shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, wherein the stem 2 has been withdrawn, i.e., pulled away from the body of the watch into the hand-setting position. In this position, spur gear 6, fixed to shaft 3, is engaged with crown gear 7, which is attached to a shaft 8, which is in turn attached to the conventional hand-controlling mechanism of the watch so that when shaft 8 rotates, the hands also rotate in the conventional manner whereby they may be set to any desired time setting. Only the minute hand 5 is shown in FIG. 1, but it will be understood that the con- Ventional hour hand, which rotates 4 as fast as the minute hand, is also provided. The mechanism for rotating the hour hand at A the speed of the minute hand is also entirely conventional, and forms no part of the present invention, and therefore is not shown.

Shaft 3 carries a collar 10 fixed thereto which serves as a stop for the end of lever 9, which is biased by spring 11 in a clockwise direction against collar 10. When the stem is pulled out to the hand-setting position, stop 10 is also withdrawn a short distance, which permits lever 9 to rotate under the action of spring 1 1 in a clockwise direction for a short distance. Fixed to lever 9 is a shaft 12 which extends through plate 13, which is suitably fastened to the case 1-4 of the timepiece, to the front side thereof. As shown in FIG. 1, shaft 12 is fastened at its other end to a second lever 16, which therefore rotates a short distance in a counter-clockwise direction as viewed from FIG. 1 (when lever 9 moves under the aciton of spring 11). The other end of lever 16 bears a pin 17 which is rotatably mounted therein and has fixed thereto a friction disc 18. On the dial side of plate 13 (FIG. 1) another friction disc 19 is fixed to shaft 8 for rotation therewith. Therefore, when the hands are set by stem 12, as above described, friction disc 19 rotates with minute hand 5 of the timepiece. Friction discs 18 and 19 are mounted in the same plane, but in the initial position of stem 2 as shown in FIG. 1, these discs are slightly out of contact. However, when the stem is pulled out into the hand-setting position, the above-described rotation of lever 16 causes the two edges of discs 18 and 19 to be engaged under the action of spring 11, as shown in FIG. 3. It will be apparent that rotation of disc 19 will now cause an opposite rotation of disc 18 as long as disc 18 is free to rotate.

Disc 18 carries an eccentric pin 20 on .which is rotatably mounted a rack 21 so that rotation of disc 18 in a clockwise direction will initially carry'rack 21 to the left from the position shown in FIG. 1, while rotation of disc 18 in the counterclockwise direction will initially carry rack 21 to the right. In its initial position, shown in FIG. 1, the eccentric pin is at the position of maximum turning-moment, i.e., in the position opposite dead center, or on a diameter substantially perpendicular to the line of rack 21. In the normal running position of the timepiece, the teeth of rack 21 are out of engagement with the peripheral teeth 23 of a third disc 24 to which is fixed a shaft 26. Shaft 26 extends through plate 13 to the back side thereof and has fixed thereto an arm 27 which conrols the conventional fast-slow rate regulator found on standard watches and clocks, and indicated at 28. This mechanism is conventional, and is usually manually movable to adjust the running rate of the timepiece. In this case, a yoke on the end of lever 27 engages the manually movable portion to accomplish the same regulation whenever disc 24 is rotated.

A collar 31 is also fixed to shaft 3, and when stem 2 is withdrawn to the hand-setting position, this collar moves upwardly to permit lever 32 to rotate clockwise under the action of spring 33. This causes clockwise rotation of shaft 34, which also passes through plate 13 to the front side of the mechanism. As seen in FIG. 1, clockwise rotation of shaft 34 appears as counter-clockwise rotation on the face side of the timepiece and causes counter-clockwise rotation of arm 36, fixed to shaft 34. Arm 36 carries fixed thereto a pin 37 which engages slot 38 of rack 21 so that counter-clockwise rotation of arm 36 forces the teeth 22 of therack into engagement with the fine peripheral teeth '23 of disc 24. It will now be apparent that all of the elements above shown have become engaged by the movement of stem 2 into the hand-setting position, so that rotation of stem 2 now causes rotation of disc 19 which in turn causes disc 18 to rotate as above described. Assuming this rotation (of disc 19) to be in the counter-clockwise direction, i.e., assuming hand is being set back, it will be apparent that disc 18 rotates in a clockwise direction, and that rack 21 initially begins to move to the left; as rack 22 is now engaged with disc 24, this will cause an initial clockwise rotation of disc 24 and shaft 26. On the back side, shown in FIG. 2, this appears as a counter-clockwise rotation of shaft 26, and of its attached lever 27, which initially therefore moves the regulating mechanism toward the S position suitable to make the necessary correction by slowing down the running rate.

The above description holds true for a limited setting of the hand 5, that is, for a limited rotation of the discs 19 and 18'. It will be apparent that as disc 18 becomes displaced by 90 from its initial position, the pin 19 will have carried rack 21 a maximum distance in either direction (depending upon the direction of rotation) from its initial position; thereafter, continued rotation of disc 18 will carry rack 21 back toward its original position, until disc 18 has rotated 180, at which time rack 21 is back substantially to its initial position, and there is no net change in regulation. When the disc 18 has rotated sufficiently toreturn the rack, or rather, the engaged wheel 24, back to its initial position, further motion of disc 18 is stopped by a latch mechanism which will now be described.

Disc 18 is provided with a slotted'aperture 41, located substantially on a diameter passing through points 17 and 20 of disc 18. Fastened to the back side of plate 13 is a spring member 42 bearing fixed thereto a pin 43 which is lightly biased by the spring 42 against the under side of disc 18, passing loosely through an aperture provided in plate 18 for this purpose Pin 43 engages disc 18 at a point also on the diameter drawn through points 17 and 20, but substantially 180 removed from the position of slot 41. It will therefore be apparent that when disc 18 has rotated substantially 180", as above described, pin 43 will enter slot 41 to latch disc 18 against further movement. The hands can continue to be set, since engagement between discs 18 and 19 is frictional, and disc 19' merely slips against disc 18 without causing any further rotation, since disc 18 is now latched. It is thus apparent that if the setting movement of hand 5 has been continued beyond a predetermined amount, for example, thirty minutes', there is no change in the running rate, since the regulator has been displaced a maximum amount, and then returned to its initial'position. This action is positive, and is not affected by an initial motion of the hands in the wrong direction; such as often occurs when a person is setting the hands, but is determined solely by the difference between the initial and final position of the hands. However, if the hands are set by less than this amount, which is normally the case when a small correction is being made due to the timepiece running slightly fast or slow, then a change in rate regulation will be accomplished since disc 18 will have rotated less than a full 180, and therefore will not have cancelled out the motion of rack 21.

In the interest of clearness, disc 18 has been shown much larger than it would usually be made in a practical device; it would ordinarily be made quite small relative to disc 19, so that after the minute hand has been moved, say, thirty minutes, disc 18 would be rotated and the latch become effective. Thus, the maximum rate regulation change would occur upon fifteen minutes displacement of the hand, which is a reasonable setting. However, the proportions shown are also operative, and in some instances shown may be preferred.

It will be noted that the above description leaves the operative elements in the engaged condition, and that it is necessary to restore them to initial condition before any subsequent correction can be made. This restoration is automatically accomplished by return of stem 2 to the normal running position, which is what the user normally does after a hand-setting operation. The means for doing this will now be described. Return of stem 2 to its normal running position shown in FIG. 1 causes collar 31 to rotate lever 32 counter-clockwise, which rotates arm 36 back to its initial position shown in FIG. 2, thus disengaging rack 21 and disc 24, but leaving the disc in whatever position it has been set to by movement of the rack. Another collar 44 on shaft 3 moves arm 46, pivoted at 47 to its initial position, in which a wedge 48 at the end of arm 46 engages the under side of the free end of spring 42 to move this spring, and with it pin 43, in a direction away from disc 18. This disengages pin 43 from slot 41, if the pin has entered the slot, and in any case, disengages it from the under side of disc 19 so that the disc 19 is now free to rotate back to its initial position. This is accomplished by means of spring 49 (FIG. 5), which is a U-shaped spring wrapped at its bend one or more times around shaft 17, with its legs extending on either side of pin 51, fixed to disc 18 (through arm 50 and shaft 17), and also of pin 52, fixed to plate 13. It will be apparent that the two legs of spring 49 tend to keep pins 51 and 52 in alignment, thus maintaining the original angular position of disc 18 shown in FIG. 2. When the disc is rotated in either direction, one or the other of the legs of spring 49 is carried by pin 51 up to a maximum of 180 displacement, which cannot be exceeded because of the latching action previously described. When disc 18 is released from restraint, spring 49 therefore rotates it back to its initial position wherein pins 51 and 52 are aligned with shaft 17. This release from restraint is accomplished not only by release of latch pin 43 as above described, but also because color 10, as it moves down the stem 2 is restored to its normal running position, forces counter-clockwise rotation of lever 9 against the action of spring 11, previously described, causing lever 16 to carry disc 18 out of engagement with friction disc 19, thus releasing disc 18 from all restraint and permitting it to be restored to its original position under the action of spring 49.

The above-described mechanism is complete and operative to accomplish automatic rate regulation, and also to latch out the rate-regulating mechanism whenever the hands are moved more than a predetermined amount, so that no change in regulation is effected when changing time zones, etc. However, for some uses, it is desirable to add a further feature in order to prevent a rapid succession of corrections from being made, as for example, when a child is playingwith the mechanism, since this might throw the regulator seriously out of adjustment. For this purpose, .an additional latch-out is provided which, in effect, disables the automatic rate-regulating mechanism after it has once been in operation, until the lapse of a considerable period of time, so that during this period further changes in hand setting will produce no changes in rateregulation. This may be done in a variety of ways, as is now well known, and as shown for example in my copending application Serial No. 13,679, filed March 4, 1960 for Safety Automatic Regulater for Timepieces. However, one simple mechanism for accomplishing this object will now be described. The

end of lever 32 (FIG. 2) passes freely under shaft 3 beyond the point where it is engaged by collar 31, into engagement with a latch arm 56, which, in the position shown in FIG. 2, prevents lever 31 from rotating clockwise when stem 2 is moved out to the hand-setting position. Latch arm 56 is biased toward lever 32 by the action of over-center spring 57. The position shown in FIG. 2 represents the condition immediately after the stem 2 has been returned to its normal running position upon completion of the above-described regulation and hand-setting operation. Since crown gear 7 is fixed to shaft 8 and rotates therewith during the normal running condition of the timepiece, this gear wheel will make one revolution per hour. A pawl 58 is fixed to the outer periphery of the crown gear for rotation therewith, and sometime during the next ensuring hour, will therefore engage cooperating projecting member 59 fixed to latch 56, and will therefore slowly push the latch 56 in a clockwise direction about its pivot 61 until the spring 57 passes over the center of pivot 61, after which the latch 56 will rapidly move clockwise until it engages stop 62 which is fixed to plate 13. Thereafter, an automatic rate regulation can be accomplished as above described, since the arm 32 is now free to follow collar 31 when the stem is withdrawn into the hand-setting position. While the latch was in the position shown in FIG. 2, no further regulation could be accomplished, because rack 21 cannot engage disc 24 when the latch arm 56 is in the position shown in FIG. 2. Now, when stem 2 is retracted, collar 63 engages the crank end 64 of latch lever 56, and throws it back into the position shown in FIG. 4, where arm 56 is biased toward lever 32, although the latch end 66 is not engaged with lever 32 since the lever has moved up into the position shown. However, as soon as the rate-regulating operation above described is completed, and the stem 2 is pushed back into the normal running position, arm 32 moves counter-clockwise enabling latch end 66 to move into latching engagement with the end of arm 32 and again latch out the automatic rate-regulating mechanism from effective operation until such time as pawl 58 again releases latch 56. Of course, if at this time the members 58 and 59 happen to be engaged, the latching mechanism will not be effective, but if they are constructed as shown, this can happen only during approximately one minute or less out of the hour, so that the chance of this occurring is negligibly small for all practical purposes. To prevent binding of the mechanism in the event that this action does occur, the arm 64 is made very thin (or 59 can be. a thin spring), so that it has suflicient compliance to bend slightly and avoid either breaking or jamming of the timepiece mechanism. Alternatively, the pawl 58 can be attached to a member rotating with the hour hand, whereupon the above-described action Will occur only once every twelve hours, thus ensuring a still larger factor of safety.

It will be understood that the normal drive mechanism of the timepiece is connected, in conventional fashion, to the shaft 8 carrying the minute hand, but since this mechanism is entirely conventional and forms no part of the invention, it is not shown.

It will be apparent that the invention provides a simple, positive-acting mechanism for accomplishing both automatic rate regulation and also automatic latch-out to prevent any change in rate regulation whenever the hands are moved by more than a predetermined amount.

It should be noted that the most rapid change in rate regulation occurs for the smallest amount of handsetting motion, and the regulation is progressively slowed down and finally reversed for larger settings. This is desirable, since in a good timepiece only small timeindicating changes are normally employed today.

It will be apparent that the embodiments shown are only exemplary and that various modifications can be made in construction and arrangement within the scope of my invention as defined in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. Automatic rate-regulating means for a timepiece, said timepiece comprising a time-display member rotatable to display and indicate the time, a stem having a normal running position and a setting position in which rotation of the stem changes the setting of said timedisplay means, and a rate regulator-setting member, a member rotatable with said time display member, frictiondrive intermediate coupling means actuated by motion of the stem into the setting position to engage the regulatorsetting member with the time-display member for moving said regulator-setting member through said friction drive coupling means in the setting position of said stem in a direction to correct the running rate of the timepiece, said intermediate coupling means including a drive wheel driven by rotation of said stem in said engaged position, an eccentric crank arm driven by said drive wheel, said crank arm being initially in a position of maximum turning moment, regulator-drive means driven by said crank arm, contact means actuated by movement of said stem into the hand-setting position to engage said regulatordrive means with said regulator-setting member, and actuated by movement of said stem back to the normal running position to disengage said regulator drive means, and means to bias said crank arm toward the initial position of maximum turning moment.

2. The invention according to claim 1, including latch means for latching said drive wheel after substantially rotation, so that the friction drive is disabled upon further rotation of said stem in the engaged position, and means for releasing said latch means upon return of the stem to the normal running position, said biasing means being then effective to return said crank arm to its initial position.

3. A timepiece comprising a time-display with member movable to display or indicate time, a manual control member settable to a first or second position, said first position corresponding to the normal running condition of the timepiece and said second position being used for changing the setting of time indicating means, rate regulating means to increase or to decrease the running rate of said timepiece, coupling means controlled by said manual member to connect the said time indicating means and said rate regulating means when said manual member is moved into said second position, said coupling means arranged to move the rate regulating means in a direction to slow down the timepiece when the said indicating means are moved back and to speed up the rate of timepiece when the time indicating means are moved forward, said coupling means being so arranged that the initial motion of the time indicating means provides maximum velocity of correction of the rate regulating means, further motion of the time indicating means pro ducing a progressively slower rate of change in the setting of the rate regulating means and still further motion of the time indicating means producing reversal of direction of motion in a rate regulating means so that after a predetermined motion of the time indicating means in one direction the rate regulating means reaches its initial condition, and latch means to latch the coupling means to prevent further action of the rate regulating means in either direction at this point so that subsequent motion of the time indicating means produces no effect on the rate regulating means.

4. The invention according to claim 3, and means to disengage said coupling means when said stem is returned to the normal running position, and means to return the coupling means to its initial position before the time indicating means were moved so as to condition the timepiece for a subsequent regulating procedure.

No references cited. 

